


A Lesson of Strength

by idrilhadhafang



Series: TFA Tidbits [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Badass Rey, Gen, Knights of the Old Republic II references, Mind Invasion, Mind Invasion Aftermath & Recovery, POV Rey (Star Wars), Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rey Needs A Hug, Rey-Centric, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Freeform, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 12:55:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11509881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: An interrogation, and the aftermath.





	A Lesson of Strength

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Truth serums, truth spells, and truth drugs
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Author's Notes: Yes, this is my rather poor attempt to retell the interrogation scene from The Force Awakens, as well as examining the repercussions.

 

 The moment that Kylo Ren enters her mind, it's painful, doubly so with the strain of trying something, anything, to keep him out. Tears stream down her face, as much from the emotional agony as from the physical agony. There are countless memories that stream from her mind -- living on Jakku under Unkar Plutt after her adoptive parents died when she was thirteen, Unkar Plutt's cruelties, the loneliness of Jakku...

"You're so lonely," Kylo Ren says. "So afraid to leave. At night, desperate to sleep, you imagine an ocean." And it's there that the ocean appears in front of Rey's eyes, and she panics. Her ocean, her sanctuary, is being invaded, the monster's in her sanctuary, the creature's in her sanctuary and she can't keep him out...

"I see it," Ren says. "I see the island."

What does he see that causes him to smile like that? Rey doesn't even want to think about it.

Another image appears in front of her mind. Han, standing next to her on Takodana, teaching her how to hold a blaster, and the warmth that she feels next to him.

"And Han Solo," Ren says. He's too close to her now, far too close. "He's like the father you never had. He would have disappointed you."

"Get out of my head," Rey hisses.

He changes angles, standing further away from her, but makes no effort to leave her mind. "I know you've seen the map," he says. "It's in there. And now you'll give it to me."

She struggles against him. Another image floats out in that moment -- Maz's palace, and what Maz told her about the Force. How frightened she had been, and how she had run away. She struggles against Ren's mental invasion but in that moment, it seems like no use.

"Don't be afraid," Ren says. "I feel it too."

And she doesn't know what to make of it. Ren's attempt at being tender with her? She doesn't think that monster's capable of tenderness. Not in the slightest.

"I'm not giving you anything," Rey says.

A quirk of a smile comes over Ren's face. "We'll see."

They struggle. For however long they struggle, it's there that Rey finds an opening, pushes back. She pushes back, and it's there that her mind is all but flooded with images. Images of Ren training under Snoke (and somehow that face looks too familiar), Ren in Jedi robes searching frantically through his bag, looking for life support packs even as a young man bleeds out on the floor of a prison, and so much more. And always that uncertainty, that fear that he'll never be good enough.

The Master of the Knights of Ren is now an open holobook to her.

"You," she says, "You're afraid -- that you'll never be as strong as Darth Vader!"

Kylo Ren stumbles back in that moment, clearly shocked -- and very much vulnerable. It's a sort of thing that Rey hasn't expected to see -- but then again, she never expected to see his face either.

Rey is left alone in the interrogation chamber, stunned at what she's just done, confused, and wondering what else she can do if she just embraced the Force. Maz's words are coming back to her now, and they're making sense, moreso than ever.

The Force is calling to her. All she needs to do is let it in.

***  
She's out of the interrogation chamber now, but it doesn't mean that the terror's over. She still has moments where she swears that she feels Kylo Ren's presence in her mind, clawing through it, tearing down her defenses as if they're made of tissue. Even on Ach-To, she can still feel him. He's far away, training with Snoke, but she can still feel him.

"It's like he's still inside my head," she tells Luke. "He's not...near me, but I can still feel him."

"It's understandable," Luke says. "After what he's done." He looks sorrowful, as if he never expected his nephew to do something like that. Rey wonders if he expected his nephew to do anything like that. It's definitely not his fault. Kylo Ren had every choice in the galaxy and he chose the wrong ones. Rey's feelings towards him are mixed at best -- watching him all but break down before his father (not that it stopped him from killing him) has added a bit of confusion there -- but she's still fundamentally angry.

Luke continues. "What he did to both you and Poe Dameron was a perversion of his powers that has no doubt given the both of you mental scars. And you're definitely not the only ones. What Kylo Ren has done, among other things, is inexcusable. I'm sorry, Rey."

Rey swallows. "It's not your fault," she says. Kylo Ren chose this, after all. All of this.

"There are ways to block him from reading you further," Luke says. "You already accidentally activated one when he first tortured you. But that's just one of many ways to block him. Think of hyperspace routes, think of concentrating on the waves of Ach-To. Anything at all, Rey."

Rey nods. "Worth a shot," she says.

It won't be an easy battle, Rey knows that. But she knows she can fight back in small ways, one step at a time.

 

 

 

 


End file.
